Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

Every week we snorkel The Aquarium, just a 1/2 mile paddle from our island. It’s a shallow patch reef surrounded by bright white coral sand.

Belize snorkeling video filmed at The Aquarium, near Long Caye at Glover’s Reef, Belize.

Glover’s Reef is famous for its pristine coral reef environment, which means snorkeling at our Long Caye island resort affords our guests easy access to some of the worlds most amazing marine life. The photo below is quite typical of what our guests might see while diving in our lagoon, especially if they’ve been quenching their thirst with a few of the local Belikin beers.

One of the many odd-looking creatures we see while diving and snorkeling at Adventure Island on Long Caye is the batfish, which actually looks nothing like a bat at all (baseball OR vampire). The species we have on Glover’s Reef is the Short-Nosed Batfish, but there are about 60 species of fishes of the family Ogcocephalidae (order Lophiiformes), found in warm and temperate seas; of which our Short-Nosed Batfish is a member.

Batfish can reach a size of around 15 inches, they grow extremely fast.  broad, flat heads; slim bodies covered with hard lumps and spines; some species have an elongated, upturned snout; about 14 in. long. They are poor swimmers and usually walk on the sea bottom on limblike pectoral and pelvic fins; most live in deep sea but some inhabit shallow water; members of a group known as anglerfish, are equipped with a “fishing pole” tipped with a fleshy “bait” to lure prey close enough to be eaten; unlike other anglers, can draw apparatus into a tube when not in use.

We love Batfish and see them quite often. It’s always a thrill to see one. The name “Batfish” holds special significance for us at Adventure Island because that is the name of our shuttle boat. Read more about our Belize shuttle boat here.

If you’ve ever wondered what our guests experience while visiting Long Caye in Belize, this 35 min. video, shot by one of our guests and posted on Youtube last October, is a true, full immersion experience. The clarity of the photography is amazing, especially the close-ups of the reef and associated marine life through the crystal clear water.

Of the many fascinating marine species we encounter frequently on Adventure Island in Belize, perhaps the most exotic and majestic is the spotted eagle ray.

The dorsal spots make the spotted eagle ray a big attraction, although because of their shyness, interaction with humans isn’t common. Nevertheless, there have been the rare incident reported of spotted eagle rays leaping out of the water onto boats and landing on people(!)

Eagle rays are a cherished sighting for snorkelers and divers because of their large size and graceful, “flying” motion through the water.

Spotted eagle rays have flat disk-shaped bodies, deep blue or black with white spots on top with a white underbelly, and distinctive flat snouts similar to a duck’s bill.

Their tails are longer than those of other rays. The front half of the long and wing-like pectoral disk has five small gills in its underside. Mature spotted eagle rays can be up to 5 meters (16 ft) in length; the largest have a wingspan of up to 3 meters (10 ft) and a mass of 230 kilograms (507 lb).

The spotted eagleray, a cartilaginous fish of the eagle ray family, Myliobatidae, can be identified by its dark ventral surface covered in white spots or rings. Near the base of the ray’s relatively long tail, just behind the pelvic fins, are several barbed stingers.

Spotted eagle rays commonly feed on small fish and crustaceans, and will sometimes dig with their snouts to look for food buried in the sand of the sea bed. These rays are commonly observed leaping out of the water. The spotted eagle ray is hunted by a wide variety of sharks. The rays are considered Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.

Belize Snorkeling Tours: On our Belize private island trips, no other item is as important as snorkel gear; exploring the underwater world is the trip’s highlight. You get what you pay for; cheap gear may mean that you spend your snorkel session with salt water in your eyes and throat, or blisters forming on your feet. We don’t provide snorkel gear because this is personal gear; it must fit your body. It’s a good idea to test your gear in a pool so you know it will work for you before you get to Belize. Everything can be ordered online, but it may be best to buy your mask at a dive shop; they can help you with the fit.

Do not presume you can buy snorkel gear in Belize. It is simply not available (except possibly on Ambergris Caye); all snorkel gear in Belize is imported from the US. You may be able to rent it in the US and bring it down if you don’t want to buy it.

We are always surprised that the general consensus is that you need better fins for diving than snorkeling. When diving you are almost always drifting and you are followed by a motor boat; you barely use your fins at all. When snorkeling you are aggressively swimming and moving your body both with and against the current. After years of working with beginning snorkelers on our island, we have the following recommendations:

Fins:
The most important aspect of any fin is how flexible it is. Trying to snorkel with fin that is unyielding is like strapping a board to your foot and trying to swim. To test a fin you are thinking of buying, grasp the fin down at the end where your foot goes and aggressively wave it up and down. A good fin should flap easily. You can spot a good fin because it will have a visible weak spot built into the structure of the fin. This acts like a hinge that allows the fin to “flip” up and down when you kick your foot. Fins that are just a flat piece of synthetic material without holes or hinges may be too stiff and difficult to propel ones’ body through the water with.

How to turn $20 fins into $80 fins

Last season we figured out how to alter a pair of stiff fins, so that they act more like expensive fins. We don’t recommend buying cheap fins just to change them, but if you already own cheap fins this works. It’s a huge improvement if you alter your fins this way. This takes about 30 min/pair, using only a sharp Exacto knife. It’s best to copy a pair of expensive fins so you know how far up to split the fin and where to put the weak spot that creates the hinge. These pictures represent “before” and “after” the fix. This pair of fins was a particularly awful set, and the inspiration for figuring out how to make them work. It was do that or throw them away, they were that bad.

There are two kinds of fins: (1) fins with a built-in shoe and (2) fins with a strap on the back that fit over your booties. The 2nd system is preferable, although those fins are more expensive. If you have fins with a built-in shoe, you might need regular socks also to discourage blisters. Even with the built-in shoe kind you still need booties to walk out to snorkel spots, but then you leave the booties on shore and continue walking backwards in the fins to get to where you can begin swimming. If you choose the second type, buy your booties first and then make sure the toe cup of the fin fits over your booties.

Snorkel:
Get a snorkel advertised as a “dry” snorkel. This will have a device on the top of the tube that keeps waves from entering the tube and then funneling salt water into your mouth. The Impulse snorkels are fantastic, although expensive ($50). They are only sold at authorized dealers, not online. To find dealers: aqualung.com. Your dive shop may have a different recommendation. The mouthpiece is another important part of the snorkel. Get a very flexible mouthpiece or else you will create intense jaw-pain from clutching a stiff piece of rubber with your teeth.

Mask:
There are many good masks available, just be sure to get a good fit. This is the best reason to buy snorkel gear in person at a dive shop; they know how to spot a good fit. Persons who need corrective lenses can easily purchase corrected masks. They are not your exact prescription, but there are various standardized prescription lenses that will be a big improvement over clear glass for those who need correction. A neoprene snorkel strap (one brand is called “slap strap”) is a wonderful thing for people with long hair. The strap included with your mask will get caught easily; the slap strap is soft and supple and doesn’t get as easily tangled. Slap straps usually also float, which is handy if your mask is stored on the deck of your kayak and you tip over inadvertently, causing all of your gear to come off of the kayak.

In summary, what you are seeking in snorkel equipment is gear that is so comfortable, and fits so well, that you cease to notice it. A snorkel session spent fiddling with leaky or chaffing gear is no fun. Take the time to search out the gear that is just right for your body, so that when you are swimming through the sea you don’t think of anything but the turtles, colorful fish, and coral you are seeing right before you!